๐โโก๏ธโ๏ธ Tolerate: Is something wrong with our thinking today?
Readers come to this study in different ways.
Some arrive from the Revelation post where Jesus praises the church in Ephesus:
โI know you cannot tolerate wicked men.โ Others may land here directly from a search.
Either way, the focus is the same: what does โtolerateโ really mean in its biblical context?
At first glance, the verse seems to clash with the Gospels, where Jesus ate with tax collectors
and sinners. One of these things must be misunderstood โ and it isnโt Jesus eating with them.
This study sets the scene from Revelation and then explores the deeper meaning of โtolerateโ
through Greek and Hebrew usage, showing how the word carries more nuance than our modern sense of โputting up with.โ
Yes, something’s drastically wrong with our thinking of the word tolerate today. And the error is compounded when it’s negated and turned into cannot tolerate.
When we hear the word tolerate today, it often carries the weight of modern debatesโwhether about inclusion, exclusion, or โzeroโtoleranceโ policies. But in Scripture, the language behind tolerate points to something deeper and more nuanced. For instance, in Revelation 2:2, Jesus praises the church in Ephesus for not tolerating wicked men, yet the original Greek and Hebrew roots suggest that this wasnโt about banishment or exile. It was about refusing to bear, elevate, or legitimize what was wicked. This study explores how โtolerating today vs. bearing thenโ opens a wider spectrum of meaning, reminding us that discernment, not rigid rules, is at the heart of biblical faithfulness.
When Jesus said, I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, and meant it as praise, He was not saying they deported the wicked men.
Let’s keep this short, but still accurate and clear. I have a large reference eLibrary on my computers. I put a question to MS Copilot, based on the research I did with it. Here’s a transcript of most of it. Portions that don’t add to understanding the word are left out.
Identify Greek and Hebrew words with shared usage for “tolerate”
I took the Greek word we read as tolerate, in context, and found a Hebrew word that appeared to be used in the same type of context as what we’re looking at in I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men. I thought I found it, and wanted to confirm.
AI Analysis from MS Copilot: excerpts from chat exchanges on the topic
In the statement “I know you cannot tolerate wicked men” the Greek word for tolerate is ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ – I’m looking for equivalent words in Hebrew, and one that shows up is ื ืฉืื nลสพ carry; lift, lift up; raise; bring, take or take away; raise high; exalt; maintain; have a longing for. Is that a good match linguistically? And if it is, what happens when we negate it with the word not? We tend to think today that not tolerating is banning, exiling, getting rid of one way or another – but the opposite of “lifting up” or “exalting” is quite different. Negating that doesn’t mean ban or get rid of – but maybe even allowing their presence unless it gets disruptive.
Letโs unpack it carefully:
1. Greek ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ (โtolerateโ in Rev 2:2)
- Lexical range: ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ means to carry, bear, endure, support, lift up.
- In Revelation 2:2 (โI know you cannot tolerate wicked menโ), the nuance is closer to endure or bear with rather than โcarry physically.โ
- So the sense is: you do not put up with / bear the weight of wicked men.
2. Hebrew ื ึธืฉึธืื (nลสพ)
- Lexical range: โto lift, carry, bear, exalt, forgive, take away.โ
- It is a very broad verb in Biblical Hebrew, used for:
- Physical carrying (Genesis 7:17 โ โthe ark was lifted upโ).
- Exalting (Psalm 24:7 โ โlift up your headsโ).
- Bearing guilt/sin (Leviticus 5:1 โ โhe shall bear his iniquityโ).
- Forgiving (Genesis 50:17 โ โplease forgive [lit. bear] the transgressionโ).
This overlap makes ื ึธืฉึธืื a strong candidate as a Hebrew equivalent to ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ, especially in contexts of bearing, enduring, or lifting up.
3. Negating the verb
- In Greek: ฮฟแฝ ฮดฯฮฝฮฑฯฮฑฮน ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฯฮฑฮน โ โyou are not able to bear/endure.โ
- In Hebrew: ืึนื ืชึดืฉึธึผืื โ โyou do not lift up / you do not bear.โ
Hereโs the key difference:
- Modern English โnot tolerateโ โ implies ban, exile, remove.
- Biblical โnot bear/lift upโ โ implies not supporting, not honoring, not carrying their burden.
So negation doesnโt necessarily mean expulsion. It could mean:
- Refusing to exalt them (not giving them honor or authority).
- Refusing to carry their guilt (not sharing in or covering for them).
- Refusing to endure their presence when it becomes disruptive.
4. Implications
- The Ephesus church is praised not for banishing wicked men, but for not elevating them, not bearing with them, not legitimizing them.
- This is subtler than our modern โzero toleranceโ mindset. Itโs about discernment: not giving wickedness a platform, not carrying its weight, not honoring it.
- They may still be present, but the community refuses to โlift them upโ into leadership or credibility.
โ Conclusion: Yes, ื ึธืฉึธืื is a good linguistic match for ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ. When negated, it shifts the meaning away from โban/exileโ toward โrefuse to exalt, refuse to carry, refuse to honor.โ Thatโs a much more relational and cultural nuanceโwicked men may exist in the community, but they are not lifted up or endured in positions of influence.
Copilot then asked me if I would like a chart to give a visual of what was just laid out.
Reflective Insight
Would you like me to map out a side-by-side chart of ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ vs. ื ึธืฉึธืื across their semantic ranges (carry, endure, exalt, forgive), so you can see exactly where they overlap and where they differ?
That would be good. I think too many times groups that Jesus met with would be totally excluded now.
Letโs lay out a sideโbyโside comparison of the Greek ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ and the Hebrew ื ึธืฉึธืื (nลสพ), so you can see how their semantic ranges overlap and diverge.
๐ Semantic Comparison: Greek ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ vs. Hebrew ื ึธืฉึธืื
| Domain of Meaning | Greek ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ | Hebrew ื ึธืฉึธืื (nลสพ) | Overlap / Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical action | Carry, lift, bear weight | Carry, lift, raise, take away | Strong overlap: both mean physically bearing or lifting |
| Endurance / tolerance | Endure, bear with, tolerate | Bear responsibility, endure burden | Overlap: both imply sustaining or enduring something |
| Honor / exaltation | Rare, but โlift upโ can imply support | Exalt, raise high, honor | Hebrew adds strong nuance of exalting / elevating |
| Forgiveness / guilt | Bear guilt, endure consequences (rare) | Bear sin, forgive, take away guilt | Hebrew has broader theological use (forgiveness, atonement) |
| Negation (โnotโฆโ) | Not endure, not bear, not tolerate | Not lift up, not exalt, not carry | Difference: Greek negation = refusal to endure; Hebrew negation = refusal to honor or carry |
โจ Key Takeaways
- Greek ฮฒฮฑฯฯฮฌฮถฯ in Rev 2:2: โYou do not bear with / endure wicked men.โ
- Hebrew ื ึธืฉึธืื: โYou do not lift up / exalt / carry wicked men.โ
- Negation nuance:
- Greek โ refusal to endure their presence.
- Hebrew โ refusal to honor, elevate, or carry their burden.
This means the Ephesus church wasnโt praised for excluding people outright, but for not legitimizing wickedness โ not giving it honor, not carrying its weight, not raising it up in leadership. Thatโs very different from modern โzero toleranceโ policies that often mean exile or exclusion.
๐โโก๏ธโ๏ธ Takeaway from Tolerating Now vs Bearing Then
What we see, for instance, in Revelation 2:2 is that โnot toleratingโ wicked men was not about exile or banishment, but about refusing to bear, elevate, or legitimize them. The language of bastazล and nฤลฤสพ points us toward discernment โ a refusal to carry the weight of wickedness or to raise it up as honorable. That insight becomes a foundation for understanding tolerance in any biblical context. Whenever the word arises, this passage serves as a touchstone: tolerance is not passive acceptance, nor is โnot toleratingโ absolute exclusion. It is the active, Christโguided discernment of what should be lifted up and what should not.
Tolerating Now vs Bearing Then – One piece of a larger picture
While this piece stands by itself, it’s also part of a series on tolerance. It’s from the first of the Seven Letters to Seven Churches in Revelation. At this time, the entire series in being researched and written. If it lit a desire to learn more, here’s an outline of what’s in the works. The list will expand as new articles are added.
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